I received this as an ARC and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although it began slowly, the characters and setting slowly unfolded to create a beautiful, sad, touching story.

Thoughtful examination of a woman's life. This is beautifully written and I liked the pastiche timeline. Eric's effort to understand Anna and her death is definitely worth a read. I would have liked to have had more a sense of setting but that's a minor quibble. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Try this for a contemplative exploration of how we live our lives and what we miss of others' pain.

It begins at the end. Eric drops out of college and ends up working at a newspaper in a small, rural town where he meets Anna. She is a few years older but many lifetimes ahead of him. They spend many hours together working at the newspaper but yet he feels there is so much he doesn't know about her. Why does she not 'do' snowstorms? Why does she always wear long sleeves? Eric reflects back on their time together after he learns about Anna's decisive ending.

Published by W. W. Norton & Company on January 17, 2017

We are told in the first paragraph of The Winter in Anna that Anna died a gruesome, self-inflicted death. The next paragraphs reveal that Eric, the narrator, will tell us Anna’s story, letting us decide for ourselves whether it is a tragedy. I’d vote yes, because even self-made disasters can be tragic and because the real tragedy is that, for some people, both life and death require unimaginable courage.

Eric met Anna while he was a young man covering high school athletic events for a weekly newspaper in Shannon, a small North Dakota town. He is quickly elevated to the position of editor (which also requires him to be a news reporter), a position he doesn’t want because it forces him to deal with the reality of life. Anna writes the middle page stories “that pretend to be news,” and Eric admires her ability to observe and describe without intruding, a skill he believes has vanished from modern journalism.

Eric’s story of meeting Anna segues into the story of Anna’s life, as Eric pieced it together from Anna’s memories and those of her acquaintances and co-workers. Something is a bit off about Anna, and as Eric learns more about her life, it is clear that essential facts are being withheld or misstated. All we know at first is that Anna (as she frequently tells Eric) is “done with men.” Eventually we learn why.

We also learn about Eric’s past and present, including the fallback college girlfriend who reenters his life in North Dakota. But while so much of the story is about the past, it is really about letting go of the past. Anna’s advice to Eric is: “Just let everything heal. Don’t turn it into a badge.” Having turned her own scars into a badge, Anna speaks from experience. As the novel unfolds, both Eric and Anna struggle to find a path to move forward, to find a way to live a bearable life.

And we learn about other characters, their surfaces and depths, their superficial smiles and hidden pain. Eric lives in a small town that holds small town secrets, indiscretions that urban dwellers wouldn’t notice or care about. One of the novel’s lessons is “Don’t judge what you don’t understand” -- a timely and sorely needed lesson about staying out of other people’s business.

Some of the characters actually find happiness, and perhaps a chance at lasting happiness. Good for them. Yet the fundamental question that The Winter in Anna asks is “how the gentle, sustaining light leaks out of life.” Anna is like millions of other single mothers. She doesn’t have much but she has her children and she loves them fiercely. Why, then, is her story tragic? Read the book to learn the answer.

Tragedy aside, The Winter in Anna is ultimately about a sliver of time, unplanned circumstances that bring two people together for less than an eyeblink in the history of humanity. We’re here and then we’re gone, the novel seems to say, and what we do when we’re here really doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of things. Unless it does. One human can touch another in ways we never appreciate until years have passed. The questions Reed Karaim raises in elegant prose have many possible answers, and the beauty of this surprising and touching novel lies in the opportunity it gives readers to choose among them.

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The Winter in Anna by Reid Karaim is a quiet, well-written story that might be difficult to read when it is released during the doldrums of mid-January. Set in small-town North Dakota pre-Internet, it follows a young man named Eric who by the stroke of luck manages to land a job working as the editor for a local newspaper. There he meets mouse-like Anna, who we learn from the outset eventually kills herself. Eric slowly develops a relationship with Anna, although it never quite becomes a romantic relationship, and learns about the past that haunts her. While gloomy in tone, this novel is sad without being maudlin and is ultimately more about relationships and memories than the tragedy itself. (Published in the Napanee Guide, December 29th 2016, pg.4)

Two young adults Eric and Anna meet while working together at a small town newspaper, become fast friends, and maybe never before have two people known so much yet so little about each other. Eric didn't stay long but spent his life thinking about the meaning of Anna, the "winter in Anna" where she finds snowstorms unbearable (one of her many mysteries), and the meaning of their relationship; the reasons for the different things Anna did and how to explain her to those still puzzled after her tragic death.

This is a quiet, contemplative story. It is difficult to find words equal to its beauty. If you want adventure and thrills, do not tread here amidst these tales of sadness and Badlands. If you want a meaningful, impactful read, proceed slowly and prepare for a real treat. You might not be able to put it down. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.